Devices used for cutting carpet, vinyl flooring, and other floor covering materials are known. These devices can be as simple as a rack for supporting a roll of floor covering material adjacent a cutting surface such as a floor or table top. The floor covering material is dispensed from the rack onto the cutting surface and is cut by an individual with a knife. After cutting the floor covering material is manually re-rolled. One disadvantage of this method is that large areas are required to lay out the floor covering material during cutting. A second disadvantage is that if the floor covering material is cut on a floor the floor covering material can be damaged by contact with materials on the floor.
More complex apparatus for performing this task are also known. One example of which includes a cradle or rack for supporting the roll of floor covering material to be dispensed, a table top across which the floor covering material is drawn, and a means of automatically re-rolling the floor covering material arranged opposite the roll. These components are generally mounted on a frame to keep them raised above the floor at an appropriate height for working. The table top includes a slot running laterally across the table through which a knife blade of a cutter projects. The knife blade and cutter are propelled along the slot by a mechanism which may include a chain which is driven by a sprocket arrangement or a cutter block driven by an air or hydraulic cylinder. When the cutter reaches either of the ends of the slot it contacts a stop which prevents further movement along the slot.
Devices of this type using a chain driven mechanism have the problem that they often cut in only one direction, while hydraulic and air driven systems are expensive and costly to maintain. These systems also tend to be excessively noisy. This is caused in part by the impact of the cutter on the stop.
A further problem of existing cutting mechanisms is that the knife blades are often bolted or otherwise fixed to the cutting block or chain making removal and replacement of the knife blade time consuming and difficult.
One prior cutting mechanism used with a device of the type described above includes a runner for travelling along a slot in the table. The runner has a wheeled member arranged below the table top and aligned with the slot, a standard is fixed to the top of the wheeled member and extends through the slot. A roller mounting member is fixed to the top of the standard, and rollers are mounted on the standard to hold the carpet in place on the table top during cutting. The rollers are biased downwards towards the table by biasing means fixed to the top of the standard. A pair of opposed knife blades are bolted to the wheeled member below the surface of the table and extend up through the slot to a top end. The top end of the each knife blade lies in a depression in a side of the roller mounting member.
This arrangement is unnecessarily complex making it expensive and makes removal and replacement of the knife blades difficult since the runner must be removed from the machine before operator can remove the bolts to release the blades.